What I originally had written on September 7th…….• M.E. Burdette Co. losing money?• How much money?• Sales is hitting their goals.• Engineering is ahead of most milestones on both new and improved products.• Manufacturing is beating the pants off their goals• Every division is within budget except Transportation, most likely due to the rising price of fuel …….. AGAIN!

What a day! First my head spins after sitting through my first management update meeting. Then I come home to an impromptu party and wind up revisiting my day in total. I still have no clue why M.E. Burdette Co. is losing money! Nothing has changed in five hours. However, after visiting with a former roommate at an apparently very successful company here in town, I am challenged, if not still frustrated, to find out what is going on at Burdette. In order to figure this thing out, I have been told by Chris Anselmo to find my tape measure. Actually he said “What is your tape measure.” But is it mine or the company’s? In order to solve the mystery, I need to:• Figure out what my tape measure is. I should just go ahead and figure out the company’s as well.• Start to unravel the mystery of the loss at Burdette by understanding the way we run the company.• DON’T JUMP TO CONCLUSIONS!!!!!!!!!!!!• Get the right data to help in this INVESTIGATION. • Call the Bean, if I need help.

Sounds so simple when I write it down on paper. But why is it so frustrating? Why is the answer not there? And what can Annie Gerdes, AKA the Bean, do to help. I don’t even know what department she works in. Tomorrow I must look back through all the info I saw today and see what is missing. There was lots of good data on the board by the break room. I think we shall start the investigation there.

What I found about the northeast sales region…….OUTSIDE SALES – NORTHEAST REGION

What I think I know about the company…….What I think I know about Engineering…….• Bill Cooke runs the department like a Theory X dictator. He calls the shots and no one crosses him.• Engineering’s deadlines are all set by Bill on inflexible schedules allowing plenty of time to always finish according to schedule.• The department’s goals and objectives look stellar because no one challenges the stated response (due) date of requests submitted. Other areas of the company don’t challenge the dates/timeframes provided by Engineering.

• M.E. Burdette is a company built on rules. Do the thing right. Follow the rules.• Success is measured at the department level. Each department has its own set of metrics that they live and die by. There are more than three or four hundred metrics listed on the Big Board outside the break room for everyone to see. Some areas easily have more than 100 different things they measure.• The Northeast Sales Region ONLY show 3 measures on the Big Board: sales dollars; margin; and cost of sales. And yet, they are the best sales team in the company in spite of having the fewest metrics. Why???• Jimbo has said that the secret to success and a long career is to keep your mouth shut and follow the rules.• We are a company built on rules and policies. Follow the rules!• Jimbo mentioned that Bill said management was considering hiring away someone from Housholder, or might try to send in a plant to spy on their methods (probably shouldn’t tell anyone this).• Success is based upon in-depth analysis and extremely detailed metrics that measures almost every process in the company.• Management is grown from within (see above from Jimbo re: long careers).• Jimbo also gave me a lot more info , but I think it is just his personal philosophy at this point. Maybe I can discuss some with Chris?